CORE PROGRAM AREAS
The nonprofit will focus on several core mission areas:
Imperiled Freshwater Species Research and Conservation Propagation
- Captive rearing and propagation of threatened and endangered fishes
- Development of species-specific propagation protocols
- Captive rearing experiments to develop captive rearing and propagation protocols
- Life history studies on threatened and endangered Great Plains fishes and mussels
- Hatchery-based applied research partnerships with state, federal, and university partners
- Environmental flow and climate change response modeling for imperiled species
- Reintroduction and augmentation support
- Genetic conservation and broodstock management
- Freshwater mussel propagation and host-fish research
Independent Freshwater Monitoring, Surveying, and Data Analysis
- Captive rearing and propagation of threatened and endangered fishes
- Development of species-specific propagation protocols
- Captive rearing experiments to develop captive rearing and propagation protocols
- Supplement the SD DANR water sample collection and monitoring program alongside FBSR
- Aid South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Aquatics Section/Natural Heritage Program staff with survey and monitoring fieldwork
- Potentially obtain funding from private walleye angling groups and/or public agency funding to deploy and manage a network of limnological monitoring buoys on mainstem Missouri River reservoirs
Applied Freshwater Ecology & Conservation Research
- Population monitoring and life-history studies
- Habitat fragmentation and connectivity research with key partners (fish passage and upstream movement studies in conjunction with a barrier removal, pre- and post-assessment, etc.)
- Climate change impacts: phenological changes, hydrologic + thermal resilience of Great Plains freshwater ecosystems
- Modeling historic and predicted impacts of climate change to imperiled species and whole assemblages
- Collaborate with state climate offices, USGS, NOAA, NEON/NSF LTER, TNC to expand resolution and spatial coverage of in-situ freshwater monitoring stations across the Great Plains
- Climate vulnerability experimentation and modeling for imperiled species
- Flow regime and hydrologic ecology, river restoration science
- Nutrient and sediment impacts on native species
- Basic and applied experiments with aquatic invasive species
- Watershed-scale conservation research–collaborate with riparian ecologists (hydrologists, dendrologists, fire ecologists, atmospheric scientists, etc.)
- Development of applied monitoring and management tools
- Thermal and flow regime modeling
- Adaptive conservation strategies